by Michael Todd
Juntto shivered. “Not with the bowels out there waiting for you to fall into. Nobody wants to be a giant turd when they die.”
A loud scream echoed from down the tunnel, and all three of them jumped into defensive poses. Katie looked at Pandora. “Who the fuck was that?”
Pandora sniffed. “I think we found our navigator, and he is not doing so well.”
The lights on Ashton’s suit bounced as he bolted toward them. When he reached Katie, he collapsed. She looked at Pandora and slowly lowered him to the floor. “Whoa, either this guy ran into something sharp, or we are not alone down here.”
She looked at his battered and bruised body. He had been badly beaten, and the giant gash on his knee explained why he had been limping as he ran toward them. She ran her hand down to his wrist and looked at his hands with a grimace. “He’s missing several fingers and has a broken leg, bruises, gashes… I can’t even start to calculate the damage he has incurred.”
Pandora knelt next to him, keeping one eye on the tunnel. “Baldy, it’s your good friend Pandora. Can you tell us what did this?”
Ashton groaned, turning his head to the side. “They came. They came. Don’t let them get me.”
Pandora patted his chest. “We won’t let him get you, buddy. Did humans do this?”
Ashton shook his head, his eyes growing wide. He lifted his arm and pointed with his half-gnawed finger. “They followed me! No, God, please!”
Katie and Pandora stood next to Juntto, leaving Ashton on the ground behind them. The culprits had followed him, all right, and they were heading straight for them.
Juntto wrinkled his nose. “Those are crabs the size of wolves!”
Pandora lifted her sword. “I hope somebody brought butter.”
Juntto lifted his spear, gripping it tightly in the middle, and heaved it, watching it soar through the air and impale one of the crabs. He barreled forward, pulling it out of the crab and going to work, stabbing another one. Its large claws clicked and clacked, trying to grab Juntto’s skin.
Juntto frowned and leaned down, pulling the crab’s leg out of its socket. He tossed it to the side and stabbed the crab until the creature went limp beneath him. Katie and Pandora ran past, shouting loudly as they sliced through the crabs, splitting them in two. Katie whirled around, thrusting her sword straight down through one of the shells.
She put her foot on the dead crab and attempted to yank the sword out, but it wouldn’t budge. She rolled her eyes and pulled the whole sword up and whipped it around. The crab slowly slid to the tip and shot straight for Pandora’s head.
Pandora ducked and the thing smacked into a live crab, forcing it into a roll down the tunnel. She gave Katie an angry look. “I told you, if you’re going to get wild, use a fucking condom. Now you’re down here flinging your fucking crabs all over the place.”
Katie thrust her middle finger at Pandora and smiled as she bisected the last of the crabs. She sheathed her sword and looked at the other two. “Well, that was definitely not what I expected to come rolling out of the tunnels. I thought I would be battling shit and stomach bile, not ginormous crabs.”
Pandora nodded at Ashton. “Bet he thought that too.”
Katie, realizing she had forgotten all about him, ran to his side and dropped on her knees. “Ashton? Are you there?”
Pandora kneeled, sniffing. “I may not be a demon anymore, but I can smell death. Don’t worry, though, the demons won’t be taking him to hell. Old Baldy is laid back with homie Jesus and the crew.”
Katie’s face fell. “We fight demons, but we lose an important member of the team to a gigantic fucking crab. This shit just gets weirder.”
Pandora reached out and closed Ashton’s eyes. “It is a shame, I know, but there will be casualties in this war. We just have to make that number as small as possible.”
Katie nodded, pulling his dog tags off and dropping them into her pouch. “You did well. Sorry you died in the belly of a beast.”
They stood, and everyone stared into the dark. Pandora kicked one of the crabs. “You have to look at this like any other body. Baylahn may be huge, but he has his own ecosystem. If you think about it, these crabs are like the antibodies, fighting infection.”
Juntto scratched his head. “What’s the infection?”
Katie glanced at him. “We are.”
Sean leaned back in his chair, staring at the screen. “You know, I’m starting to think having only two infected on this base might be bad.”
Timothy gave him a smirk. “I thought you and your boys were badasses, no matter what.”
Sean cleared his throat, sitting up straighter in his wheelchair. “We are, but in case you haven’t noticed, I am currently rolling around in a chair with wheels, so I might not be up to my best. I don’t have a demon to heal me or give me extra strength when it really comes down to it and I need it.”
Timothy tapped a few keys. “Well, you might need it this time around, so I would start mustering whatever you have.”
Sean chuckled, showing a muscle. “It’s all right here.”
Timothy’s eye went wide as he stared at the screen. “I just lost the tracker for the Humvee. It was there one second, then poof! It suddenly went out. Those things are hardwired into the engine so they can’t be disabled without destroying the electronics of the whole system and shutting the vehicle down.”
Sean narrowed his eyes and picked up the radio, clicking to their station. “Brock, come in. We need an update on your status. Your tracker for the Humvee just went out. Over.”
They sat there listening to nothing but white noise. Timothy waved his hand. “Try again.”
Sean swallowed hard, not having a good feeling. “Uh, Brock, Eddie, someone come in, please. We need to know the status of the portal opening. Your Hummer’s tracking device just went out. Over.”
He sat there listening to the static on the comm. “They can’t hear us. Or they can’t respond.”
Timothy shook his head and started typing. Suddenly a whining sound erupted, and everything in front of them shut down. Timothy froze and put his hands in the air. “What the fuck is going on? Everything in the place just shut down. The whole base is in total darkness. That means no weapons systems, comm, nothing.”
Sean pulled his flashlight out of the bag on the seat of his chair and tried to turn it on, but it was fried. He slammed it against his hand, clicking the switch, but there was nothing. Timothy shook his head. “That’s not even connected to the electricity. What the fuck?”
Sean put the flashlight next to him on the chair. “Maybe it’s just a coincidence. I replaced some of the batteries this morning. Maybe I put them in wrong.”
Timothy fumbled in front of him in the dark. “You didn’t test it?”
Sean groaned slightly. “I did, and it worked, but there could be some sort of short or the batteries were already close to dead. There’s no reason to panic at this point.”
Timothy stumbled out of his chair and across the room. “Of all the times to redecorate. I don’t know my way around the fabulousness of this fucking room right now. Be careful where you wheel. I don’t need you knocking down an expensive piece of art or something.”
Sean chuckled. “Right this second, I am not moving a wheel. I can’t see anything in here. This place needs some glow-in-the-dark shit for situations like this.”
Timothy snorted. “Oh sure, and then you’ll be saying we need glow sticks and house music. This is not a rave, Sean. Get serious.”
The sound of a drawer opening and Timothy shuffling around was the only thing Sean heard in the whole place. Finally Timothy exclaimed, “Ah, ha! Candles. I knew I didn’t get rid of all of them. That would have been silly of me.”
He sauntered around the room, placing small glass candleholders all over the place. He pulled a packet of matches from a box on the shelf by the door and lit each one. When he was done, he blew out the last match and smiled at Sean. “Mood lighting comes in handy for more than just hank
y-panky. Didn’t think I would need them, but I’m glad I have them.”
Sean let out a deep breath, happy to be out of the pitch-dark. “I really don’t like the dark. I’ve seen way too much freaky-ass shit to be sitting around in the dark like that.”
Timothy walked back over and plopped down in his chair. “I wouldn’t be too worried. The generators should be kicking in soon.”
Sean looked at the clock, which wasn’t lit up. “How long?”
Timothy pulled a pocket watch from his pants and wiggled his eyebrows. “Doesn’t run on battery or electricity. I wind this sucker once a day. From this, estimating the lights went out two minutes ago, I would say any second. Literally any second now.”
Timothy and Sean sat in silence, the candles casting eerie shadows across the walls and ceiling. Timothy ran his hand over the table, whistling as Sean gripped the armrests of his wheelchair. “Any time?”
Timothy smacked his lips. “Uh huh. Any time now. Come on, generators, we could use you right about now. Just click on.”
They both sat there for another few minutes before finally, Timothy smacked his fists on the table. “Nothing. Not a single fucking light is coming on. Those generators are supposed to be working right now. That’s why we have them—so we don’t lose data, and so we have weaponry back within thirty seconds of a goddamn blackout.”
Sean frowned. “Obviously, this isn’t your normal blackout.”
Timothy leaned his head back. “What the fuck is going on?”
Sean fidgeted in his seat. “ I don’t know, but I got a bad feeling about this. We need to get topside and see what the fuck is up. They may need our help.”
Brock grabbed Eddie by the shirt collar as they ran, pulling him along down the dusty road. Eddie looked around, huffing and puffing. “Where are all the lights? I thought for sure there were lights along this road.”
Brock was exhausted, his lungs pumping hard. “I thought so too, but it would make sense that there weren’t. You don’t want to draw attention to the fact that we are here.”
Eddie nodded, his hands bouncing at his sides as his boots slapped the dirt road. “I am starting to understand why we did so much PT when we were full-time. I feel like a fat guy trying to run a marathon after eating three pizzas.”
Brock shook his head and looked behind them, but he didn’t see anything in the distance. Suddenly they heard a voice shouting. “Identify yourself!”
Eddie and Brock slowed down, putting their hands in the air. “Brock and Eddie! We had to ditch the Hummer.”
They moved slower until they saw the guards standing in the dark. They lowered their weapons and Brock looked at them wildly. “What the fuck is going on here? The base is completely dark. I couldn’t see a single light from down the road. I thought we had a shit-ton farther to run.”
The soldier shook his head. “We don’t know what is going on. One minute we were guarding, the whole nine. The next minute the machines went off, the lights all turned off, and not a single bit of comm worked. We can’t ask what’s up, and we can’t leave our station. We are incredibly vulnerable right now. I’m pointing fucking guns at you that aren’t even working.”
Brock smacked the soldier on the shoulder. “You’re doing good. I want you guys to stand watch. We’re going to get you some help up here. Use your mace, your daggers, and anything else you got to protect yourself. There are demons out there, but we have no idea how many. We’ve got to get to the others.”
The soldier nodded, and Brock and Eddie took off toward the main building. The moon had come out from behind the clouds, and they were able to see Timothy running out into the middle of the base with Sean wheeling his chair behind.
Brock ran up. “Guys, are you okay?”
Timothy nodded. “We don’t know what’s going on, and the generators aren’t kicking in. What happened out there? One minute your Hummer’s signal was strong, and the next you dropped off the map. We couldn’t even contact you on the comm.”
Brock ran his hand through his hair. “There were glowing demons out there. Some were tall and skinny, the others small dogs. We don’t know how, but we heard a crackling noise, and then one of them exploded.”
Eddie shook his head, catching his breath. “At least one. It could have been more; we don’t know.”
Timothy furrowed his brow. “But we didn’t hear it out here. How could it be so strong and knock everything out at the base, and you two still be standing here alive in front of us?”
Eddie thought about it for a second. “Hold up. I fucking know. I was too freaked out back there to think about it clearly.”
Brock tilted his head. “What’s up?”
Eddie pounded his fist into his hand. “That exploding demon must have been a weapon. It was like an EMP.”
Timothy raised an eyebrow. “A what?”
Brock tilted his head back, realizing Eddie was right. “It’s an electromagnetic pulse. It kills anything that uses electricity or anything with circuitry.”
Timothy put up his hand. “Hold up. I know what you’re talking about. Strong enough ones can completely erase the information in a computer system. That means all our weaponry, our comm, and our research could be gone.”
Eddie nodded. “If it was strong enough. If not, it might have only shut shit down temporarily.”
Stephanie walked up, pursing her lips. “I heard you when I was walking up. EMP. How the fuck did those ignorant bastards come up with that?”
Brock shrugged. “I don’t know, but they glimmered before they exploded. I saw more of them, too. To be honest, we don’t know how many demons are out there right now. Can we get some old weapons from Joshua?”
Stephanie shook her head, wiping the sweat from her forehead. “That was the first place I went. When the system went down, it automatically sealed the armory. A good thing protection-wise, but now we’ve got very little to choose from when it comes to weapons. There are some in the training room, and a box of them in the guard station.”
Brock looked at the sealed armory. “We’ll have to work with what we’ve got right now. Things are not how we would want them, but when are they ever?”
Stephanie chuckled. “Never. Not once. But we made it through before, and we’ll do it this time. We need to get ready for an attack. Eddie, sound battle stations.”
Eddie looked back and forth and put up one finger. “Uh…how?”
Stephanie whipped around, her badass attitude written all over her face. “You do it the old-fashioned way, Eddie. Run your ass all over the base and roust every motherfucker with a heartbeat. Do it now!”
Eddie jumped and nodded, taking off toward a group of soldiers who had come out to check what was going on. He put his arms in the air, waving at them. “Battle stations, bitches! Tell everyone else too. I want you motherfuckers up and out here in two minutes!”
The guys took off back into their barracks. Shouts could be heard from all over the base.
Stephanie laughed and looked at Timothy. “Someone should work on the backups. This is a fucking military base. Something has to be working.”
12
The rippling of the Leviathan shook the floor beneath Katie, Pandora, and Juntto’s feet as they walked along. They all had their weapons out, ready for an attack at any moment. They knew that if there had been six crabs, there were bound to be hundreds, even thousands more creeping around the massive creature’s body.
Juntto kicked the body of a dead crab. “These have been stabbed and gutted.”
Katie bent next to one of the dead crabs and narrowed her eyes. “There are several of them.”
Pandora nodded. “Wilson and Big Red must have come through here. Ashton didn’t have any weapons.”
Katie stood and waved her hand. “We keep going.”
They moved down the hallway, looking around for any sign. Juntto stopped and groaned. “The floor is all mushy.”
Pandora poked it with her sword. “It’s the guts, bro. What did you expect inside
one of these things? Roses and Hygge?”
Juntto grumped, “Would have been nice.”
Katie walked ahead and stopped, looking back at the others. “Hey, we got something up here. Stop fucking around back there.”
Pandora smirked. “Yeah, Juntto, stop fucking around.”
He huffed and followed her as they walked up to Katie. Pandora sighed, looking at a large metal gate attached to the walls and ceiling. “Well, that’s not a good sign, now is it?”
Katie shook her head. “I don’t understand. What is this doing here?”
Pandora tapped the iron gate with her sword. “I told you, the inside of the Leviathan is a living and breathing ecosystem. Apparently, that ecosystem also includes human beings, or human-like creatures at least. Whoever it is, from the looks of this gate, they’ve been here a very long time.”
Juntto stepped forward. “There’s a sign. Pazete se. Onie što… I don’t know. I can’t read that. It can’t be a language that has recently been spoken on land.”
Katie came up next to him and tried to read what was on the sign. “Pazete se. Onie što sakaat da vlezat možat skapo da ja platat cenata... I don’t know it either. It’s definitely not Latin or Italian. Those are the only two languages I know a little of.”
Pandora swallowed hard and walked up to the sign. “I can read it.”
Katie and Juntto looked at her. “Okay, what’s it say?”
Pandora took a deep breath. “It’s Macedonian. It isn’t spoken, except in small parts of the country and in old churches and such. It’s an ancient language, but the sign isn’t ancient.”
Juntto put his hand on the gate. “What does it say?”
Pandora stepped back and pulled her sword back out, holding it in front of her. “I’ll tell you what it doesn’t say. It definitely doesn’t say there are donuts right around the corner.”
Katie looked at Pandora for a moment, then stepped closer and narrowed her eyes. “Why do I feel like there is more to this story than you being bilingual?”